The present invention relates to hand held terminals, and in particular to portable shopping terminals having the capability of sensing the odor of foods and the like.
Portable shopping terminals are known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,735, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Sensor arrays for detecting odors, sometimes called electronic noses, are known and have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,440, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The main object of the present invention is to combine an electronic odor sensor into a terminal and specifically into a portable shopping terminal for use therewith.
In accordance with the present invention, a hand held terminal is provided having a display, a keying input which can be either manually actuated keys such as on a keyboard and/or touch screen actuated keys, an odor sensor which generates a signal corresponding to an odor that is sensed, a processor for receiving information from the keying input and from the odor sensor for processing same and for directing information onto a display. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a housing is provided for the terminal in which the keying input, odor sensor, display and processor are contained. The terminal also preferably includes a bar code scanner which can either be incorporated in the housing, attached to the housing, or be received as a module that can be separately plugged into an interface slot.
The odor sensor can be used to sense the odor of food in a food store for use by the terminal. For example, the terminal can use the input from the sensor to determine if food is spoiled, it can be used to identify a product, or it can be used to differentiate between products to determine price differentials.
The odor sensor can be routinely used in the home on the typical xe2x80x9cmilk smellxe2x80x9d test and tasting the turning milk or cream in your coffee. The terminal would put the spoiled milk or cream on a shopping list so that you could order it immediately or in the next 2 days if it is sensing the slow decay of the foodstuff. The same could be used for produce in the home.
Additionally, identification of the item that you are going to scan is important as well. For example, this could be used to identify the expensive xe2x80x9cgolden deliciousxe2x80x9d apple from the less expensive xe2x80x9cmacintoshxe2x80x9d variety.
These and other objects are the advantages of the present invention are disclosed hereinafter with reference to the attached drawings, wherein: